Tips For Mixing Drums In Your Home Recording Studio

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I just found an incredible article from Disc Makers that is basically a complete guide to mixing drums. They say it’s just a collection of tips, but those are some great – and pretty comprehensive – tips! The article starts with how you should treat each part of a standard drum kit; then it finishes with tips for non-drum kit percussion that apply to just about any kind of percussion instrument.

You’ll learn suggested EQ (equalizer) settings – including which frequencies to use and where to boost or cut, and by how much – as well as suggested compression settings for:

Kick drum

Snare and toms

“Full-kit” sounds picked up by overhead and other ambient mics (which is where cymbals are discussed)

Percussion instruments (including tambourine, shakers, congas, etc.)

All of this mixing learning goodness is excerpted from a larger guide on mixing in general – Mixing With iZotope – which is a FREE pdf from the folks at iZotope (makers of such awesome audio software as the mastering plugin, Ozone).